Tag Archives: American Indians

Radstone indicates that the ethical goals of trauma theory are not entirely unproblematic. At a surface level, the goal of “cultural remembrance” for the “absent presence” is unchallenged: Though trauma analysis is in its early stages of development, its ethical imperatives do appear to have been accepted: trauma analysis positions itself by analogy with the…

Maurice Stevens points out how trauma has long fallen on gendered and racial lines. The litigious nature of traumatic experience constrains the resulting “in group.” In the past, railroad companies would employ lawyers in the effort to avoid blame by reducing the number of individuals who could be considered injured (CITATION Stevens) – likewise, Euro-Americans have…

With this project, when I’m trying to do is understand the relationship between trauma and writing and learning. This can be complicated by neurological considerations, but we have a little understanding of the complex factors that allow some individuals to overcome trauma while others remain crippled by it. The problem for my research then is…

Is there a difference between collection (per Van Den Eede), attachment, and ownership? I’m thinking the trauma of loss versus the trauma of absence (Saunders? Or LaCapra?) I also think of this in terms of the controversy surrounding Donald Trump. Many people appear John to his campaign because they feel that their ownership of what…

pri.org/hiroshima- a podcast addressing the trauma of the atomic bomb. Also addresses the mental health considerations. (And don’t forget the severely constrained Smithsonian exhibit.) I’m especially interested in the concept of the memory keepers – those who were not there for the bombing, but who carry forward the memory of family members who were. But there…

Bill O’Reilly doesn’t categorize his own upbringing as “abusive.” Many Euro-Americans don’t see the treatment of Native Americans as genocide. How do we decide what “counts” as trauma? Who decides this? Does surviving one trauma grant one the authority to gauge the traumas of others?

In the PBS documentary on Auschwitz, they juxtaposed the interviews of an SS guard and a partisan to show how neither side (decades after the war) felt regret about having killed. The SS guard said he thought he was protecting Germany from the Jews, and the partisan was fighting the Germans. Clearly, the partisan (I…

A concern I share with LaCapra and others is the ways in which trauma can be defined and redefined and “watered down” to the point that it no longer carries any real meaning: Moreover, there is an important sense in which the aftereffects…of traumatic events are not fully owned by anyone and…affect everyone. But the…